The Portrayal of Britain
- Even though I've never been closer to Britain that watching BBC America, I was somewhat offended by the ridiculously stereotypical portrayal of England in that episode. Partly because it was Flanderization of an entire country, but mostly because of the Viewers Are Morons attitude that the producers would have to have in order to assume that people would take that portrayal seriously.
- Painful, painful, to me, an English-Canadian, but also a little bit hilarious. There came a point - it could easily have been the point at which the Welsh Oxford undergrad ate jellied eels because... No. Ugh. - where I figures that it must be a very clever satire of American views of England and that it ought not be taken seriously. My favorite was the elderly patrician woman telling B&B that her grandson had sex with the victim. If the writers had ever met an actual English patrician, they would know that anyone who talked like that would be thrown out of the "palace" (no comment) so fast they wouldn't know what hit them.
- And the butler? Hilarious. My grandfather is a peer, and the idea of a hereditary butler following him around and taking the fall for him killing someone is completely ludicrous.
- Also, is it really THAT hard to get a decent cup of coffee in the UK? I speak from an Australian perspective (where sitting down for a cuppa serves a similar cultural place to Britain and where coffee abounds). I don't know about when the episode aired, but a quick Google search turns up an article
showing that in December 2015 there were over 5,000 coffee shops in the UK. - Tower Bridge lifts at regular, planned intervals throughout every day. You wouldn't have to "be ridiculously lucky" to see it you'd just need to check the schedule.
- I always laugh when people from other countries (or just Europhile Americans) gripe about the portrayal of European countries in American stuff, because if Americans do anything but nod exuberantly in agreement to inaccurate/insulting portrayals of America we're regarded as fussy nationalistic idiots.
- I have not found that to be true. And besides this episode's take on Britain would be on the level of having someone show up in New York and find it full of cowboys going "Yeehaw!" and firing guns in the air.
- Painful, painful, to me, an English-Canadian, but also a little bit hilarious. There came a point - it could easily have been the point at which the Welsh Oxford undergrad ate jellied eels because... No. Ugh. - where I figures that it must be a very clever satire of American views of England and that it ought not be taken seriously. My favorite was the elderly patrician woman telling B&B that her grandson had sex with the victim. If the writers had ever met an actual English patrician, they would know that anyone who talked like that would be thrown out of the "palace" (no comment) so fast they wouldn't know what hit them.
